Social policy impact report - Citizens Advice 2011/12

Citizens Advice has published a report detailing the social policy work undertaken by advisers over 2011/12. Amongst the issues covered are the Welfare Reform Bill and the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO), as well as other areas such as credit and debt, and employment.

In relation to LASPO, the report notes:

In early August 2012, it became apparent that the Ministry of Justice intended to interpret the Government’s commitment to retain welfare benefit legal aid for appeals to the First Tier Tribunal on points of law very narrowly – only where the tribunal identifies an error of law in its own decision. We have written to the Minister to point out that this does not appear to be in line with the commitment given in Parliament and have drafted a standard letter for bureaux with legal aid contracts for welfare benefits to send to their MPs to point out the injustice of this decision.

For a copy of the whole report, see Citizens Advice social policy impact report